The Arkansaw traveler., 1887-11-19
GOOD BREEDING.
Detroit Free Press.

Detroit Free Press.
 After all, that sign of superiority which we call good breeding is i'm herent, rather than artificial. Way ward but sagacious Dick Steele said 'I take it for rule that the natural, and not the acquired, man is the com panion. Learning, wit, gallantry and good breeding are all but subordinate qualities in society, and are of no value but as they are subservient to benevo- fence and tend to certain manner of being or appearing equal to the rest of the company"
 That apostle of polite intercourse, my Lord Chesterfield, thought that a mans own good breeding was the best security against other peoples ill manners. Addison, whom we call the reformer of English manners, declared that always good breeding shows itself most when to an ordinary eye it ap- pears the least. Quaint old Fuller's governing social maxim was this: "Let thy carriage be friendly, but not foolishIy free. An unwary openness causeth contempt, but little reserv- edness respect"
 "True politeness," says Goldsmith, ''is everywhere the same. Ceremonies, which take up so much of our atten- tion, are only artificial help which ignorance assumes ill order to initiate politeness, which is the result of good sense and good nature. A person pos sessed of those qualities, though he had never seen court, is truly agree able, and if without them, would con- tinue clown, though he had been all his life a gentleman usher."
 Hail, ye small courtesies of life 7" exclaimed the author of the "Senti- mental Journey" I'for smooth do ye make the road of it, like Grace and Beauty, which beget inclinations to love at first sight 'tis ye who open the door and let the stranger in"
 Pride, ill nature and want of sense, says Swift, are the three great sources of ill manners. Without some one of these defects, no man will behave him. self ill for want ofexperience, or what, in the language of fools, is called knowing the world.
 "Who is that man?" indignantly asked a young woman, one of many employees in a public office in this goodly old city of Detroit
 "My dear miss" was the reply, "not to know that gentleman is to argue yourself unknown"
 "Gentleman indeed" was the with ering rejoinder of the now thoroughly aroused woman. ''I never met more thoroughly hammered boor."
 "Dear mel Of what has he been guilty?"
 "I was obliged to go into Mr. D.'s room just now," she said; "that per son whom you seem to esteem so highly sat reading paper with his heels on the table, his hat on his head and burning cigar ill his mouth. He coolly, not to say impudently, stared at me, but neither changed his attitude nor ceased to puff at his cigar. Ifyou if you don't go ill there this minute and throw him out of the window Pll never work where men are again, never. There!"
 It was even so. The indignant young woman had not exaggerated the situ- ation. Yet this quintessence of coarse ness-this Last Expression of vulgar ill-breeding and of wanton disre- gard of the first law of politeness, is an acknowledged social leader, an active promoter of church works, a practiced club man, and one of the most potential financial factors in the group which Michigan's metropolis boasts. Presumably he does not carry into his club and other channels that know him well the vulgarity that marked his conduct toward the indig- nant young woman (who, it should be noted, earns her own livelihood); nev- ertheless, he is representative man, who sways powerful and far- reach ing influence in this ultra fashionable community.